G4S chief executive under pressure over Olympic shambles

The pressure on Nick Buckles, chief executive of G4S, has increased after a
leading City analyst said there was a “question mark” over his future and he
was ordered to appear before MPs over the Olympic security crisis.

The Olympic crisis comes just months after G4S’s planned £5.2bn acquisition of ISS embarrassingly collapsed due to shareholder oppositionPhoto: Bloomberg

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However, Caroline de La Soujeole, analyst at Seymour Pierce, warned there were now doubts about his future as chief executive. The Olympic crisis comes just months after G4S’s planned £5.2bn acquisition of ISS embarrassingly collapsed due to shareholder opposition.

Ms de La Soujeole said: “There must be a question mark over Nick Buckles. This is a major public disaster and it is not good for the company. However, he is a good manager and it would be a shame.”

One top 20 shareholder said they are “watching the situation closely”.

The Olympic contract is worth an estimated £284m to G4S. In an interim management statement in May the company said the contract was adding one percentage point of revenue this year out of total growth of 7pc.

Ms de La Soujeole said there is likely to be no impact on G4S’s results this year from the debacle, but that the main issue is “reputational”.

Analysts at Exane added: “Beyond this specific event, the key question is to assess if this failure could impact G4S’s ability to win other UK contracts, and notably with the Government, a key element given the strong bid pipeline in this region – 45pc of total pipeline.”